Resolution and sensitivity of electron backscattered diffraction in a cold-field emission SEM
- Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
With the advent and development of automated beam control and pattern identification software, the use of electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) as an analytical tool has increased in recent years. EBSD has been used to determine local crystallography and identification of phases, texturing of polyscrystalline materials, ion implantation damage and the extent of crystal deformation. X-ray diffraction yields crystallographic information, but with lateral resolution on the order of a millimeter. TEM provides local information with resolution of a few angstroms, but this is only over a small lateral region of electron transparency and with poor statistics. The tradeoff between sensitivity and spatial resolution is inherent in all analytical techniques. EBSD is no exception, and determining this tradeoff for this technique is the focus of our work. In a specimen with minimal interfacial strains, as the electron beam is brought near a crystal boundary, the interaction volume of scattered electrons will straddle both crystals, resulting in an overlapped Kikuchi pattern on the imaging phosphor. By aligning such a boundary parallel to the incident electron beam, the {open_quotes}best case{close_quotes} lateral resolution of EBSD can be determined by taking patterns as the probe is stepped in known increments across the boundary.
- OSTI ID:
- 468831
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960877--; CNN: Grant DMR-9203722; Grant MRL-9120521
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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